Parenting24seven.ie

Parenting24seven.ie,  is a treasure trove for parents(mothers, fathers, grandparents, stepmothers, stepfathers, carers and other adults with responsibility for caring for a child or young person including, for example, those with responsibilities for children in residential care)  as it is an extremely useful website that contains insightful tips on what works best for children and families at different stages of childhood, and in different situations. This site has separate sections for parents who have children under five, those between six and 12-years-old, and for parents with teenagers. We also have a series of diverse parenting booklets on our Tusla.ie website. In addition to these supports, our partner agency Barnardos has nationwide details of where to do parenting courses across the country. For more information see here. 

Tusla has also developed 50 Key Messages for parents and Tusla’s PPFS programme has helped parents all over Ireland to make empowering changes in their lives. You can read two such personal testimonies of success here: Irina's Story | Aishling’s story.

Grandparents are also extremely important in family life in Ireland, and below a number of grandparents pass on their unique wisdom and describe how parenting styles have changed over the years.

Positive Parenting 

We know that people come to parenthood from different starting points, with different capacities and with different beliefs and values as well as in a range of family forms. While there will be differences, therefore, in styles of parenting, the core parenting tasks of protecting, nurturing, guiding, and directing are common to all cultures.

Children do better when they have a close and positive relationship with their parents and we believe that positive parenting has the following characteristics:

• Is strong but caring (authoritative) and is not bossy (authoritarian);
• Is supportive, warm and responsive;
• Is understanding of children and their daily lives;
• Expects children to follow age appropriate rules, gives explanations and is not controlling;
• Involves children in decision making and encourages two-way communication and discussion;
• Is non-violent;
• Promotes dignity, recognising children as individuals in their own right;
• Assumes full responsibility for the quality of the relationship with the child.

 
Parental Participation 

Parental Participation, first and foremost, is about helping parents to be involved in their own child’s care and education. A wide variety of parental projects have received money from Tusla in recent years to progress work in this area. More details of this work can be accessed here.

In addition, our Parenting Support Champions (PSC) project brings together practitioners who are already involved with parenting and family supports. This project aims to support and promote parenting and the implementation of the Parenting Support Strategy within Tusla and partner agencies and organisations. There are now more than 100 individual PSCs nationally. Additional information on all of Tusla’s parenting support can be accessed here.